A Mirror that Reflects our Image
It happened in one of our churches in Nagaland. Years ago a believer in Christ, a pretty young mother, met the pastor and offered a bundle of new currencies amounting to nine thousand rupees.
When asked what the reason for such an offer she said, “It is one tenth of the profit I made.”
“That means you made a profit of ninety thousand rupees?” asked the pastor.
“Yes” she replied.
“What is the business which is so lucrative as to give such a profit?” the pastor asked again.
“Pastor it is so simple, I got a contract for one lakh rupees. I completed the work within ten thousand rupees and the balance is the profit.”
“The church does not need such a tithe” said the pastor and declined to accept the offer. The lady left the place with her face down cast.
A brief article titled ‘Deteriorating Law and Order’ authored by Zheshito Swu, appeared in Nagaland Post (12 July 2007, p. 4), points out the prevalence of “violent incidents in every corner of the state… continuous and increasing crimes like dacoity, murder, kidnapping, rape, theft and so on.” It also points out some “other serious crimes like smuggling, drug peddling, making and circulating of counterfeit currency.”
To the litany of evils enumerated above it adds a new entrant, namely, car stealing. It observes that there are more than thousand stolen vehicles plying with fake documents. In a town that is throttled by traffic creating an inferno like situation by the vehicles with proper documents we can ill afford to let those with fake ones to ply freely.
A Unique Identity
The article referred to begins with a note concerning the identity of the state. It calls Nagaland a Christian state. The opening paragraph ends with a punch and questions us with almost a stab, “Aren’t we defaming the name ‘Nagaland for Christ?’”
North East India is not as pristine as it was thought to be. If we think that Nagaland is better that the rest of the states of North East India we are living in a world of myth. Things that were confined to the major metropolis of the world have managed to meander in to the folds of the hills of North East. The air that was once bereft of ‘pollutants’ is now filled with gory news. Not a day goes without hearing the word killing.
The margin of divide between the rich and the poor unknown to our society widening to the mountainous magnitude is alarming and is imminent of a revolution in the making with unexpected and dangerous consequences.
When we hear stories concerning the Hills of North East beyond the ‘chicken neck’ as those whose skies never see birds it sounds like a concocted myth. But if only one lives and experiences life here one finds the veracity of truth in hundred folds.
Gone are the days when a currency note fallen due to the inadvertence of a passer by was collected and perched on the boughs of trees flanking the hill’s winding road so that the owner would regain it The gripping sense of justice was so strong that the power of money was too weak to tempt a remote villager. But now corruption seems to have gone deep into the marrow of our bones.
Citizens of cities and towns enjoy all sorts of comforts while their counterparts in the remote parts of the state suffer not only the remoteness but also lack basic amenities, spend many times more of what a city dweller spends for an official work. One walks miles to get a bus with much uncertainty. If one finds a bus he is still unsure of reaching the destination given the condition of the road or the bus or both. Are we black topping the road or ‘black washing’ the road?
The questions that are relevant to be asked today and be on the tip of everyone’s tongue are not where do the funds come from but where do the funds go? It is not how do the funds come but how do the funds go?
Humours are a kind of heuristic method employed by the sages of by gone ages to teach values. They posses a unique power to impart lessons. A statement as the following may tickle laughter, but it takes us to the realm of our conscience. If the entire amount of cement supplied to the state as per the official records has to be verified one may have to show the entire state carpeted with concrete to the thickness of few inches if not few feet.
Things have reached such a pass where we have to say that we are not evolving forward or towards the best but rather backward and towards the worst. Today it is no more a homicide, nor is it a fratricide, but now it is patricide. Remember the incident of certain Vincent killing his father and imagine the way at which killings take a grave course!
Signs of Hope
The creation is such that streams should flow down, the water should evaporate and rise to dissipate in the sphere of space, the sun should shine and the stars should illumine and humans cannot but be good because they are created by God, the goodness itself.
Amidst this pall of gloom there arises a ray of hope. People do rise to the occasion to prove that they still are humans. Stories of sacrifices abound. Individuals and families risking their lives for others’ sake are many.
The concern raised by Zheshito Swu in his article is sign that guardian angels are still around us. In a situation which blares out a loss of sense of sin taking deep root, this sort of an acknowledgement and acceptance of our weakness deserves red carpet welcome for it opens before us an avenue for marching ahead with corrective measures.
The generosity of people in their offer of goods and funds to the caused of relief can not be swept away even by the wave of Tsunami’s magnitude.
It is heartening to hear reports of people returning the purses found on the road with not a little amount of money to the owner concerned or to the police.
In times of communal conflagration that swayed the people of Mumbai in recent years the out pouring of sympathies from all quarters and words of condemnation heaped upon criminals and the spontaneous rendering of helping hand in hundreds of ways to the dead and to the wounded by the ordinary citizens strike our minds to think that human being after all is God’s creation and one can not but be reflecting His goodness.
Not too long ago the spontaneous Good Samaritan act of a Mumbai youth who saved a young woman from North East when stabbed by a delinquent way farer near the Gate way of India had deservingly caught the eyes of India all over.
At times we need to be proud of having a citizen who even in her involvement in the profession which is considered injurious to her health and morality is thinking of lofty thoughts of sacrifice. A woman once said, “I am happy that some men eat by body which will after my death be eaten only by earth.”
We need to be proud of the umpteenth number of men of old preferring to possess palms that were unstained. The few who might have found momentary pleasure in pocketing the pennies not their own, are nothing but an anomaly to the Naga culture and ethos. It is our conviction and our history and legends prove it.
Time to Act
The purpose of this writing is not to project an idea that evil abounds, everything is corrupt and hope is something to be far fetched. It is rather to highlight the fact that even amidst hopeless situations abounding everywhere there are men and women whose acts stand as powerful examples for us to emulate.
In the words of a report of the meeting of the religious heads in Srilanka that appeared in a theological journal soon after the Killer Tsunami killed millions we read, “In what human effort failed, Tsunami succeeded, namely, to bring together the various religious groups for a dialogue.” Crescent and Cross crisscrossed, temples and stupas found no difference; humans huddled together under the same roof and prayed together under the single canopy, the blue sky. All had one common concern, that is, to alleviate human suffering. Such a common concern seems to be the need of the hour. Should we wait for a great tragedy like that of Tsunami to strike us and wake us up from the slumber of corruption we are in?
It is easy to relegate human issues affecting us all under the garb of reticence. But reticence has a rare capacity to reveal more than if one blasts out in full throat, provided one is open to pick out the under currents. There are people who silently suffer. Unable to protest openly against forces inimical to civilized society they stop the conversation from getting on with a sigh, “what can we do?” There is a need to understand this silence and resignation as a dormant volcano waiting to erupt.
The saying “no one is absolutely saintly and no one is absolutely sinful” holds good when considering the deeds of good Samaritans that are occasionally reported. It seems rather easier to look at the maladies than to muster courage to look for remedies One finds easily the foul than the fine and prefers to let his eyes pry on lies than truths. If only one counts the blessings and names them one by one the rays of hope for the land not only just flickers but shines out very bright.
Fr. R. R. Graviour Augustine
Director, Pastoral Centre, Dimapur.
